‘Cactus’ will have its Australian Premiere at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne 2019 on August 12. Directed by Aneek Chaudhuri and acted in by Aparajita Dey, Anurupa Chakraborty and Aishani De, the film has been spoken about for its content. The film premiered in Reaktor Indian film festival of Vienna and went on to be nominated for Rome Independent film Awards 2019. Cactus was screened at Marche du film of Cannes earlier this year.
The film is a commentary on Jesus Christ through a silent mode and this tends to portray Jesus in her female avatar. It is a 90-minute feature-length narrative that is shot in black and white. Cactus is a part of the Beyond Bollywood section with a stellar line-up of films like Bulbul Can Sing, Bhonsle, Widow of Silence and Aamis. The film festival opens on August 8 with Bulbul Can Sing; Shah Rukh Khan will be the chief guest this year.
Aneek says, “The team is elated as making alternative films is extremely tough in Kolkata. People here are either pretentious artistes or more inclined toward mainstream ones. Unity is what artists here lack in; this makes us a region that basks in its past legacy. Hereby, we rely a lot on film festivals.” Indian film festival of Melbourne holds screening of both mainstream and independent films and the festival runs for a period of 10 days. It is chaired by Mitu Bhowmick Lange. He adds, "Mitu Bhowmick, the director of this festival is extremely encouraging for indie makers as well, and my journey into films began with IFFM.” Cactus will be screened at 21:00 hours local time at HOYTS Highpoint Australia.